News and Announcements Archive

Wayne Law Examines US and Cuba Trade Relations with April 7 Lecture

March 18, 2009

DETROIT (March 18, 2009) – Wayne State University Law School and the Wayne Law International Law Student Association are pleased to announce a lecture by Jake Colvin of the National Foreign Trade Council from 12:15-1:20 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, in the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium. The lecture is titled “The Last Throes of the Embargo? What changes in Washington and Havana mean for the future of U.S.-Cuba relations.”

“As president of the International Law Students Association, I am extremely excited for Colvin’s visit to Wayne Law,” said Sonia Salah. “I am eager to hear his thoughts on America’s continued trade embargo against Cuba and how recent events in Washington D.C. will affect the overall relationship between our countries.”

Since its enactment in 1962, the trade embargo with Cuba heavily limits all relations with the communist country. According to reports from Reuters, the Obama Administration has recently taken steps to ease restrictions on Cuban-American travel and the selling of agricultural and medical goods to the country. Additionally, many political figures, such as Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and ministers from the Union of South American Nations, have declared that it’s time for the embargo to end.

Colvin’s lecture will discuss his most recent report, "The Case for a New Cuba Policy," which features calls by a number of current and former administration officials for changing U.S. Cuba policy.

Colvin is a fellow with the New Ideas Fund, a group that supports progressive approaches to U.S. national security and foreign policy. He is also Vice President for Global Trade Issues at the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), a business association based in Washington, DC, whose mission is to promote an open, rules-based trading system. Prior to his current position, he directed USA*Engage, a business coalition established under the Council to promote U.S. diplomacy, trade and humanitarian assistance abroad.

Colvin has written on Cuba and other economic, political and foreign policy topics for a variety of outlets including the Chicago Tribune, Forbes.com, Miami Herald, Huffington Post and Comedy Central's Indecision2008.com. Colvin also served as a facilitator for poverty alleviation discussions at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006 and 2007. Additionally, he was a member of John Kerry for President's international economic policy advisory committee and a media surrogate for economic policy issues at the Democratic Convention in 2004.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Colvin is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and the University of Richmond.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $3.50 in parking structure #1 across from the Law School on West Palmer Street. For more information regarding this event, please contact the Wayne Law International Law Student Association via email at sonia.a.salah@gmail.com.

About Wayne Law
Wayne State University Law School has educated and served the Detroit metropolitan area since its inception as Detroit City Law School in 1927. Located at 471 West Palmer Street in Detroit’s re-energized historic cultural center, the Law School remains committed to student success and features modern lecture and court facilities, multi-media and distance learning classrooms, a 250-seat auditorium, and the Arthur Neef Law Library, which houses one of the nation's 40 largest legal collections. Taught by an internationally recognized and expert faculty, Wayne Law students experience a high-quality legal education via a growing array of hands-on curricular offerings, five live-client clinics, and access to well over 100 internships with local and non-profit entities each year. Its 11,000 living alumni, who work in every state of the nation and more than a dozen foreign countries, are experts in their disciplines and include leading members of the local, national and international legal communities. For more information, visit www.law.wayne.edu.